About Us

Our History

Fifty years ago, a small concrete and drain company was incorporated under the name of ConDrain Construction by two young and ambitious men who had arrived in Toronto from their native Italy. Over the years this tiny family company has evolved into one of the largest sewer and watermain installation companies in Canada.

Before 1960, Fred and Angelo DeGasperis operated their new company out of a small bungalow near Highway 401 in Toronto. One family lived on the main floor of the house. The balance of the property was dedicated to the business: office space in the basement, pipe storage in the back yard, and truck maintenance in the single car garage. When their brother Tony arrived and joined the business in 1960, it was clear that the rapidly expanding company needed a new location. A short time later, ConDrain was relocated to a large commercial property with a bigger building located several blocks to the east on Connie Street. The new building was big enough to provide separate offices for each of the brothers as well as their father. This site was large enough to accomodate the growing company for the next ten years.

From their property close to Highway 401 and Keele Street, the brothers were building an important client base in the Greater Toronto Area. ConDrain crews serviced many apartment projects by doing concrete repairs, pouring concrete slabs, and installing drainage pipes. They also began water and sewer pipe installation in small residential subdivisions for new deveopment companies.

During the decade of the sixties the company ran a large number of projects in another important area: Niagara Region. ConDrain’s first major project was to service a 100 lot subdivision in Grimsby on the shoreline of Lake Ontario in 1962. The company went on to install many water and sewer lines in subdivisions within Thorold, Welland, Niagara Falls and St Catherines. In fact, ConDrain serviced an average of 500 acres of land per year in the Region during the sixties.

It was not unexpected that the owners of a successful water and sewer installation company would expand into community and neighbourhood development by creating Metrus Developments Inc. and into commercial-industrial real estate by forming Metrus Properties Limited. Both companies were established and operating by the end of the decade.

At the beginning of the seventies, ConDrain Construction was only in its second decade of operation when the Connie Street location was no longer adequate in size to accomodate the growing company. A parcel of land was purchased on the south side of Langstaff Road, west of Dufferin Street, in Concord. The brothers developed the site as an industrial subdivsion with a large municipal park in the centre. Two lots were retained to serve as the new home of ConDrain Construction.

Development of the new community of Erin Mills got underway in 1971 to the west of Toronto in the new City of Mississauga. Cadillac Developments Limited, the developer of the 7,000 acre land assembly, selected ConDrain to service their subdivisions. This was a huge contract and it was one of the major reasons for the move of the company offices and shop to the new site north of Toronto in Concord.

When ConDrain Construction entered the eighties the company was 25 years old, its operations continued to grow and the number of companies in the Group increased. Con-Elco Ltd. , formed in 1978, was becoming a major player in the land servicing business. It specialized in the installation of underground power and telephone systems. With the establishment of Con-Strada Construction in 1981, the Group diversified into road construction. In 1983, ConDrain Construction became ConDrain Company (1983) Ltd.

The DeGasperis brothers through Metrus Developments began to develop significant planned communities north of Toronto in the 1980’s with the inception of Weston Downs in Vaughan and Bayview Hill in Richmond Hill. ConDrain was there to install underground services in both communities.

Crowle Fittings and Supply Ltd was acquired by the brothers in 1986 because it was a natural extension to the core business at ConDrain. Crowle has a product line which includes cast iron saddles and fittings, valves and hydrants. By 1989, the DeGasperis brothers had created Con Cast Pipe because of their concern with the poor quality of precast concrete pipe which was being produced at the time by other manufacturing companies.

In 1995, ConDrain Company moved its corporate offices to a new site on the west side of Dufferin Street, north of Langstaff Road. The executive offices of ConDrain are located on a 19 acre parcel of land at 30 Floral Parkway in a beautiful building with Con-Strada Construction and Metrus Properties. On the west side, there is a state of the art maintenance and repair facility known as “The Shop” where ConDrain and Con-Strada trucks and heavy equipment are serviced. The size of the entire complex is 120,000 square feet.

ConDrain Company was a large, flourishing and diversified business as the DeGasperis Family and their valued employees entered the 21st Century. Angelo’s son Romeo, representing the next generation, was elevated to the position of Chief Executive Officer at ConDrain. Con-Strada Construction formed new and related companies (Strada Aggregates and Strada Crush in 1996 and Strada Industries in 2000). Con-Elco acquired Fellmore Electrical Contractors (1991) to produce roadway lighting and created a new division (2000) for gas line installation. Futureway Communications Inc. (1998) was created as a data, telephony and video service provider. Con Cast Pipe expanded its product base to box culverts, large valve chambers and precast concrete arch systems (con/spans) for bridge construction. A subsidiary, Sky Cast Inc., was created (1997) to manufacture concrete lighting poles. Ontario Concrete Products (OCP) began operation (2002) as a precast concrete pipe manufacturing company using robotic technology. The product lines of Con Cast Pipe and OCP are totally integrated.

Metrus Developments remains a leader in the development of residential communities with the establishment of Stonehaven in Newmarket (1990’s) and Vellore Village in Vaughan (2000’s). The latest house building company to be established by the DeGasperis brothers, Aspen Ridge Homes (1992), continues to grow with each passing year. And Metrus Properties continues to provide high quality commercial and prestige industrial buildings for their expanding client base. ConDrain Company has always been there to install the services in the subdivisions of Metrus Developments and Metrus Properties.

The first priority of Fred, Angelo and Tony as well as Romeo and the other people at ConDrain is to provide high quality and efficient professional service to their large client base. In addition, ConDrain can offer their customers the opportunity and benefit of accessing the products and services provided by the other core companies in the Group.